so an interesting thing about the running game so far this year and a general trend that's really been going on the last 2-3 years:
establishing the ground game first is no longer a valid way to run an explosive offence
the good OCs and playcallers in this league arent worried about establishing the run in september - teams are averaging 7 ypa on first down which opens up the run as a secondary facet of the offence
all the teams that have focused on establishing the run first (e.g. teams that have the highest percentage of runs called on first downs) are the worst offences in football by football outsiders metrics (and for what its worth it passes the eye test too)
yes the run is important when it gets colder but if you can fly down the field and score touchdowns then you dont need to work extra hard to establish a ground game (especially if its ineffective) because you dont need an effective ground game to set up play action etc.
and this is why im not fussed about the ravens offence not having a consistent running game yet for a couple of reasons:
- the passing game is effective which creates more opportunities to score and create space for the running game when teams start dropping defenders out of the box
- alex collins has faced the largest number of stacked (8 men+) boxes of any RB in the league so far which helps the passing game even more - if teams start dropping defenders into coverage then it will open up the running game more